


Restoring Orbit and the Lure of Gravity

by Rotten_cake



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Roller Coaster, Eventual Smut, Fix It Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Past Relationship(s), Post-Canon, curtis and shiro dont work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:06:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25892578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rotten_cake/pseuds/Rotten_cake
Summary: The union was not bound by love but by a goal to check off a list. It was a part of Shiro’s five star life plan.Join the garrison, achieve golden boy status, save the world and all of the solar systems beyond. Get married. Lead a peaceful life until death finally claims it’s prize.Keith wanted so much more. He wanted lifetimes.Following the war it was made clear that the universe needed him far more than the earthbound commander. And if the stars and planets, their satellites too, were to fall from their places on the space mobile occupying the vast plane of existence; he would be the one to catch them. Without a second thought. Unless the light of his life fell at the same time.---A fix it fic in which twin souls are reintroduced on the five year anniversary mark of the wars end. Allura is still alive, I hardly watched season eight so this picks up more so after season seven.
Relationships: Allura & Lance (Voltron), Allura/Lance (Voltron), Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Restoring Orbit and the Lure of Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Voltron fic, I intend to keep every chapter between 5-10k words,, I'm unsure of how many chapters I plan to write so here goes nothing, enjoy! P.S. Each title will be named after a song on this handy dandy playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7GicycLOv8zuRmH3Mkguwr?si=wKR84-dJRiiB_AFW-5fhiw

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment things went into a downhill spiral. It may have begun when all of team Voltron touched ground on their home planet Earth. Maybe it was the moment that the new recruits to the galaxy Garrison crew were introduced to the ‘believed to be missing veteran’. Takashi Shirogane. Neither of these possibilities were easy to connect to the beginning of a downfall. Not when they both sounded like the promise of a future. 

Landing back on Earth soil had the same meaning as the word home for nearly every member of the crew aboard The Castle of Lions. It was a long time dream to go back to the place the team had missed so dearly. 

For Keith the meaning of the planet’s name came out as ‘pri-zen’ per the enunciation in the english dictionary. However ‘prison’ was one character amiss for the five lettered word ‘Earth’. 

The original paladin of fire had hardly ever seen this place in the same light that his comrades did. To be there again was to have his nerves pressed with the anxiety to leave. To go where his weight felt right. In galaxies far away from here. To the furthest corners of each one. Doing something that could make a difference. Saving lives, mothers fathers and children at the mercy of injustice. He was rather protective over the idea of a family even though his own had been sparse for many years.

There were times though, that he had dreamt up his own family. He’d never tell a soul but he’d imagined that someday, a long time from now he might like to be settled. Not in the contained reclusive kind of way. But having a definitive space or significant other that could stir up that feeling of certainty. 

In all honesty it had been easier to picture these sorts of things before he had fought in a war, far away from the measly rock he inhabited for eighteen years of life.

This was up to the moment where every possibility was unwound before his eyes.

Day by day it became increasingly difficult to meet Shiro’s eyes.

Shiro had taken to a stage to give a speech, After the final strike. The one Keith took. The blow that had effectively put an end to Sendak’s Reign of Terror on Earth. The swing of his sword to end a war that lasted centuries and spanned across starry planes of outer space. The blow he dealt to protect Shiro. And at the end of the commander’s address to the survivors he told them to be with the ones they loved.’ It struck a chord with Keith that following these legendary words, he had not been visited by whom he loved most.

\------

In retrospect, there were numerous things that led the two of them to this moment. 

The beginning of Shiro’s worst nightmare to date. He should have seen it coming. Keith never took a fight lying down.

And in Keith’s way of life, feelings were a fight. With himself. With others who stoked his nerves that were coals. Flaring with brighter, hotter intensity following every jab.

He spoke in flames with diction that carried the burn of scorching hot metal.

It was rather unfortunate for anyone who had a nasty spat with him, that words could never be withdrawn.

Like ashes, they’re carried with the wind. Engraved into the stone tablets of minds and remembered years later at the mention of a name. Nothing Keith said could be taken back.

For that the marmoran soldier was glad. He meant everything that came out of his mouth. Spat the damaging sentences back at their recipient. Made sure to drench them in as much venom and loathing as he could manage. To throw the pain he felt back at the man who stood not ten feet from him. 

His heart died a little with each syllable. His lungs wrung themselves out by packing punches in the vowels. If he had any less dignity he’d sob with every statement. 

“What about your promise? What’s this say about giving up huh?” The sound of his own voice burned his throat. That wasn’t fair. But to be fair, nothing about this situation was fair. 

The man with the plan, the leader of every motive, move and mission. Floundered in the battleground between them. Where the weapons were letters glued together to form makeshift knives and spears ripping away the flesh they bore to each other. 

They never armed themselves with shields or bullet proof vests when it came to one another. When it came to the black paladin and his right hand, honesty was the only option. Keith wondered when that rule was abandoned by the other party. The thought was enough to stir a fresh wave of fury. His teeth gnashed, his eyes went slitted, yellow hues surfacing where they were once white.

“Did it even occur to you to ask me Shiro?” Rage splintered his tone, ripped his vocal chords to shreds. Shiro couldn’t bear the sight, tearing his eyes away was a mistake though. Keith had never known him to be a coward. He wouldn’t accept cowardice before, he sure as hell wouldn’t take it now. 

“Answer me!” The former red paladin was near flinging himself at the other. Feet falling infront of one after the other. A fist pressing into the taller man's chest, shoving him back. It was not enough to topple the man made of marble.

Keith's muscles fought to throw hands at the taller male’s chest once more. If he were to take another step in Shiro's direction, there'd be no holding back. His heart hammered in defeat, ready to break through bone just to prove a point. 

“You didn’t want a life on Earth. You didn’t want this, Keith.” Loosely, he gestured to the vacated wedding scene. Flowers were lost to the ruthless desert wind, balloons taken by the guests. Empty flutes of champagne were left empty by a crowd aiming to cure the thirst of victory and happiness after years of struggle and loss. “It would have been a non question.”

“I went to the ends of the universe and back for you time after time. What do you think the end goal of that was? To spend the rest of my life star systems apart?” He didn’t say that he would go to the ends of the multiverse if it had meant Shiro’s life would be preserved. He couldn’t. 

“But if this is what you wanted. I’m glad.” The conviction in his voice made it clear he wasn’t. How could he be happy about this outcome. He dreamed for years that after it all, following the war, the sleepless nights and weeks and months without the other paladin under the same celestial sphere. That the universe would give him a break, would give them a break. Didn’t they deserve that much? 

But Shiro had apparently never seen things his way. The retired leader of Voltron wanted a peaceful life on his home planet. A husband to share it all with. A man who didn’t seem to expect much out of him in return for his hand in marriage. To be wedded to the man who dealt a hand in the saving of millions was enough. Keith wanted so much more. He wanted lifetimes. No matter how clueless he’d been, Shiro somehow knew that much. Maybe it was something the leader of men didn’t find himself capable of giving. 

He hadn’t planned on the back breaking weight of guilt that would follow his actions. Heavy as holding up the pressure of the sky. A weight he thought he knew before. He learned the hard way that all he'd suffered could not measure what he felt now. 

What he had in mind was a situation in which Keith accepted what he chose. A Keith who was his best man at the ceremony. This was the reality he had envisioned. What he got was entirely the opposite. 

The red paladin sat in the crowd as a formality. He had been forced to painstakingly watch because he’d been dragged in by his men in arms. Though some like Pidge sensed it killed him to do so. Keith watched the kiss, the exchange of rings. He threw his red snot filled handkerchief at the pair of grooms and left the sight as soon as the damned thing was done. The deal was sealed. In sickness and in health Shiro promised his love to a man he’d only met since arriving on Earth once again. Until death do them part. 

Only after the audience present for the ceremony left, did this conversation take place. 

“Have a good life shiro.” There were various follow ups to this particular sentence that clawed up Keith’s throat but hadn’t done a good enough job at shredding his lips to exit his jugular. ‘And keep me out of it.’ ,’Hope your new man can swallow your shit, god knows I have for too long.’ ‘Don’t expect me to be there next time you fall, Icarus.’ The last was too dramatic to be coming from Keith, it was a possibility from Lance, proving the two red paladins had spent too much time together. And the fact that they were more similar to one another than either of them would care to admit.

Shiro’s former teammate, right hand, end all be all, left that night. The other paladins all stuck around until they were too drunk to think about the war that had ended days ago, too lost in the celebration that was a culmination of successes. Not only an event focused on the love of two men but the efforts of thousands that extended beyond humanity. The paladin’s basked in the feeling of a job well done. It only occurred to them the next morning that their party was incomplete. With one of six paladins missing off the face of the planet. Weeks later, signals from what was believed to be a desolate area of space contacted the Garrison. Keith was taking up arms with the Blade Of Marmora until further notice.

Meanwhile Keith's absence that morning haunted Shiro's waking moments almost every day since.

He could hardly remember a time that he didn’t wake up from this dream. A repeat of every word said that night. His honeymoon that came after was barely a memory in his mind. Instead he was plagued with what could have been. Maiming himself for every wrong choice that he had no chance to undo. 

Curtis surely knew not long after their wedding. From the way his husband didn’t trust himself to utter his partner's name during their intimate moments, for fear that he may say another. In the way that they bordered on romance, as if it were something that could only blossom from necessity. The marriage had failed from the moment the rings were exchanged. It was a solution to an entirely different problem. The union was not bound by love but by a goal to check off a list. It was a part of Shiro’s five star life plan. 

Join the garrison, achieve golden boy status, save the world and all of the solar systems beyond. Get married. Lead a peaceful life until death finally claims it’s prize.  
Keith was not so petty to call him on it. In every dream though, he did. Shiro woke up more tired than he felt before he’d slept. Some nights, he didn’t sleep. Avoiding it like a wink of shut eye would be enough to kill him. It was because he knew what awaited him. A new rerun on the moment that would rub his nose in regret. The smell of it was death and metal. His heart bled for Keith. For every time he woke up, one foot in the grave, hanging onto the dirt above, dangling six feet over the coffin with his name on it, lid wide open. All because Keith would never let him die. Shiro could be lying in immortal sleep, good as gone, but if his right hand willed him back, he had no choice but to obey. 

Today he awoke from the same vivid dream. This time, he’d slept long enough to get through two brutal visions of the past. Before he had dreamt of their departure from one another, he first dreamt about their last kiss. Long before the edge of the universe. It had been long enough ago that it almost felt as if it had never been. That the faint memory of Keith’s lips touching his had truly been a fever dream. Surely it hadn’t. He’d felt their spark, molten hot over the planes of his imperfect skin, grazing over that mouth of his. His own lips that somehow after years of pride and honor still had the capability of lying through his teeth.

He allowed himself to wallow in the lingering fragments of his memory, fading as the dream slipped through his fingertips. Beside him were empty bed sheets. Curtis had gone. It had possibly been a month since he cut their connection. Tired of living in the haunted past Takashi could not shake. The captain of the atlas felt the fabric beneath his hand, limbs sprawled over the empty king size bed, feeling as large as the cavity in his chest that was severely lacking in heart. 

The brain had a marvelous way of remembering specific details. The feeling of the crowded space within Black’s cockpit, inhabited by two paladins instead of one. The fervent need to hold Keith then, in a body not his. His soul, a phantom watching from the outside as a man who shared his appearance and memories extended the love that consumed Shiro in life and death. His love for the red paladin extended beyond his own corporeal form that had been lost to space and time again and again. 

The last dregs of the thought fled him as a buzz reached his ears. His communications device, courtesy of the galaxy garrison and its forged alliances with intergalactic enterprises, was a stir on his nightstand. If he let it go much longer the thing would inch across the surface and collide with the carpeted ground. Unfortunately it would not die there if left unattended. Technology so advanced no longer required the charge cell phones and computers of the past had. 

No, the maneuverable, wearable holographic hub would likely outlive its user at any rate. Pidge often joked that the advancements in technology could replace any race with enough work and time. It may have been their goal someday to craft a society entirely non dependent on organic life. The idea was a short cry of a 2000’s horror movie nightmare. The kind the former red and green paladin could watch together for hours. Though the early 1980’s creature features were Keith’s preferred film material. Details like those were the kind that came up just to drive another wedge into the man’s rib cage, attempting to reach the vessel once responsible for holding onto his love and the task of pumping blood through his veins.

Picking up the still vibrating panel, he sat up, expanding it’s glowing face to see the alert that had popped up across the screen in blue and white script. An invitation to the palace of New Altea. A ball was being hosted in honor of the anniversary five years after the great war. A breath escaped him, stole the rest of the air from his collapsing chest. Each paladin’s attendance was necessary. No exceptions would be made, Allura’s orders. 

Five years had gone by before Takashi had noticed. His work since the end to the war had kept him occupied, enveloped him in the comfort of giving all he could muster. Who had the time to think about regrets and desires when there was a job demanding his undivided attention. It asked of him the full capacities of his mind and heart for those still affected by Zarkon’s ten thousand long year reign. In comparison to that span of time five years was nothing. In those five years, Shiro had not faced Keith apart from the waking vision of him after a restless night full of dreams he had not the power to will away. Promising his appearance was the least he could do for the worlds that looked to him and his peers that helped lift the universe off it’s knees. It was the least he could do for his team. 

He had an earth’s equivalent of a week before he would be deposited at the gates of the newly developed Castle of lions. Home to the paladins. Planet to the race recovering from extinction. 

\---

Keith was no more excited for the message. He was perhaps less distraught than his former mentor and partner. He’d had plenty of experience guarding his heart with steel walls unreachable by most. There had only been one man who had seen the most vulnerable sides of him. That one man had cast him aside five years ago, a servant to the american dream. Keith Kogane had never been such a devoted servant to the paths laid out for him. He was a martyr to the many galaxies and to his world that once was made up of one man. It was foolish to think it was Shiro alone who centered his gravity. Following the war it was made clear that the universe needed him far more than the earthbound commander. And if the stars and planets, their satellites too, were to fall from their places on the space mobile occupying the vast plane of existence; he would be the one to catch them. Without a second thought. Unless the light of his life fell at the same time.

He’d faced the decision before. He chose the love of his life rather than the countless lives that hinged on their continued path to triumph. 

He liked to think that now, things were different. However he knew that, even in death he couldn't bring himself to give up on Shiro. In the end, Shiro never gave up on him. It was hard to put into words what exactly happened in the last few weeks on earth. But it hadn’t been the abandonment of Shiro’s belief in Keith. And all the things good that ran hand in hand with the red paladin.

During this time spent with the Blades of Marmora, he fell into their ways. Missions came before personal matters. And of missions there were plenty. Countless sectors of space had been suffering the ill effects of galran rule for some time now. Damage that took the effort of many, and time to heal.

When his own device pinged, a simpler communicator that reached further than the Earth models, supplied by the blades. He ignored it for vargas that washed into the amalgamation of quintents until there were forty eight vargas left that his arrival was due at the palace. The first night would be a ball, afterward, a spicolian movement full of meetings forging new ties to foreign solar systems. Plans for the future of the alliance, work within the workings of a steady intergalactic empire. Something that would last much longer than his invitation stated.

Leaving now guaranteed time away from the lifestyle he had worked himself into over the last half decade. For how long he couldn’t be sure. Nerves bit at his limbs that called for a long hot shower, aching in the pleasing way one's body might after a healthy limit of over exertion. 

Keith and Shiro upheld similar habits in the way that they coped. Ignoring sleep and the possibility that life went beyond their worth in the tasks they took on. They both would carry the weight of the world on their backs without needing to be asked. The words Atlas Man echoed in some far part of the ex paladin’s mind. The mulleted man almost swatted the air in front of him as if he could clear these nagging reminders of a past he worked to ignore twenty five of his twenty six hour days. The ones that stretched an inch over the width of an Earth’s single rotation.

It took no time at all to pack for two reasons. One was that Keith carried little on his person anywhere he went. Two was that the castle had its own wings meant to be a home away from home to the five paladins of Voltron. There were clothes not even the closet knew about yet, tailored to the wearer’s wills and measurements. Beds, baths, sitting rooms and offices all finely accented in the colors Black, Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. The blue room was left standing simply as a formality. 

Lance, the blue paladin, the frenemy of Keith, loverboy of television across the galaxy. Synonym for pain in the ass and brightest smile in any room. He had slowly won over the princess turned empress’ heart after years of living in the palace, working alongside her as chief diplomat. 

His abandoned quarters aside, the other four had use of the rooms as often as needed. Though Pidge worked with the Alkari and other systems crafting state of the art tech for the alliance. Hunk was an engineer working at the green paladin’s side, leaving on diplomatic missions here and there, along with a food show streaming across all solar planes. Shiro had the Garrison, Keith had the work with the blades that he held dear to his heart, making his visits rarer than the others. If not for the anniversary of a tyrannic leader’s downfall, Keith would suspect that Allura simply organized the whole ordeal for the sake of a reunion.

The paladin’s were a family like the lone wolf had never known. Sure he had shiro for years, watching his back, gently guiding him toward some divine light that could be found in the fusion and fission of helium and hydrogen high, high above their small Arizona town. But the others were full of a shared drive for peace with the expanse of space and life that Keith harbored for longer than he’d been alive. It had formed in him in his mother’s soul to protect the meaning of love and loyalty. 

Pidge, Lance and Hunk, hell even Allura and Coran had made up the comforting presence of a team that he had lacked in his childhood. 

\----

Getting ready those two days before went as so for Keith. The former right hand, made leader, turned blade, took Kosmo, his beloved space wolf to his mother. She would watch over the loveable blink hound while Keith was away on official business. Taking his own space vessel, he set out to New Altea, reviewing information provided by Kolivan. The important leaders, the resources that needed to be gathered if possible, aid that could be deployed and supplied from Kerberos to the far corners of the planer systems thereafter. 

Flying had put the anxiety at ease some, numbing the thrum of ‘what if’s’ that threatened to derail his cool poker face before he had even made landing.

For captain of the atlas, midas man of the Garrison, Takashi Shirogane. It was gathering information, analyzing the strongest points of the alliances new and old. Days of the weak each their own take on restless. Excitement and dread flirted with one another, creating an intoxicating swirl of emotions that demanded his worries to collide. Having dealt with similar feelings like these his entire life it was easy to push them away and substitute one for another vice that consisted of paperwork and estimated amounts of some mathematical calculation or another. 

Forty eight hours dwindled to twenty four, to twelve. In a blur, Takashi was among the realms of the celestial sphere once more. His trips past the earth’s mesosphere were few and far between, even fewer since his divorce. 

Curtis enjoyed the excuse of travel to escape their quiet life in an all but deserted desert. An escape from his profoundly unsuccessful union. While Shiro busied himself with matters of the universes well being and stability, Curtis took to the more eye catching, freeing aspects of outer space. All the sights he’d had yet to see. Sights many would never get a glimpse of while living their lives down on Earth. Luckily for him, at the time he could use the supplemental advantages of loving a man who had saved the known universe. If there were any bright sides to his one sided love story those visits must’ve been at the top of the list. 

\--

New Altea. Describing it was to describe the gardens of Adam and Eve to aliens. 

That was if the Garden of Eden housed architectural statements that soared to the far reaches of the atmosphere. There were people of every origin, even the once believed extinct alteans. The land was not as vast as the seas that shifted color, breaking light through the reflections into every faction of the rainbow. It appeared to be an oil spill of bubble solution that was never ending. It washed up on mossy, rocky, and sandy shores in foamy froth. The brightest colors of foliage were scattered through pieces of land resembling large islands rather than the spacious countries and continents Earth hosted. 

At the center of the largest one was an elaborate creation that melded cultures human and something far more developed. Spires shot up into blue cloud cover, five of them aligned with the movement of five matching stars all named after the colors of the cats that Voltron coalesced into. From each one a bridge extended, connecting these towers to other segments of the island, reaching to the shores down below. Spiral staircases came off of each leading to the ground, each showcased the elements the lions were known for. 

The yellow tower’s broke off into a canyon of rock, blue touched the thick shores of an alien ocean, red rose into steeping volcanoes largely dormant, green into expansive forestry that was left untouched. Black’s tower, being in the center, had no one bridge. Instead, its peak stabbed into skies linking the highest point to the reaches of the cosmos. 

The palace continued on the inside, rooms too many to count inhabited the massive structure. It was the home of the planet’s heart.

Space craft sailed down past the endless sight of beauty that cultivated this utopian society. There were too many to focus on one instead of another, added to the countless mental distractions that Shiro and Keith faced they hardly had the wit to spot one another’s marmoran or garrison ships. 

The two suns , one pink and one yellow cast a dusty shade of permanent sunset over the planet, lighting two thirds of it constantly leaving room for three less distinct seasons rather than four. It made sense that Lance could live here. In a place that mimicked the most romantic settings of an Earth atmosphere during any given time. That and the fact that some water-like element made up the planet almost entirely. 

Generals, Kings, Queens, soldiers and representatives of faraway lands spotted the ground small as ants, leading up to a large staircase that swept into the front doors of the castle. Their transportation was left at an old deposit of magma that was in the beginning stages of a new island. Its father volcano sealed over at the top, capped into a mountain that glimmered with snow that appeared shades of orange and magenta. Bridges connected this landmass into the castles doors thrust open to the oncoming visitors.

Keith parked his own marmoran cruiser as close to the entrance as possible, aiming to avoid as many awkward encounters as possible. Having piloted two of five portions that made up the legendary Voltron it was difficult to walk about unnoticed. Some voices lifted as he walked past, only pushing his legs to carry him faster. His quick pace was only halted as another body careened into his, slamming into his side as an arm flung itself around his neck. The greeting came after the collision. 

“Keith you big recluse! I can't believe I haven't wrangled your ass to Alkari by now! Or here even, it’s been too long since I’ve last seen you in person!” The voice belonged to none other but the green paladin of Voltron. Pidge Gunderson. Likely the second most thought of in Keith’s mind when it came to his teammates. 

A warm laugh startled his own cheeks into a smile, something soft erupting in his chest. The two arms of Voltron were close friends, it suddenly reminded him how much it really hurt to be away for such a long time. “Haven’t had enough of a break to be caught, Kolivan is sure to keep me plenty busy. Who else is here?” 

Pidge went ahead and explained that Hunk rode with them, Lance was inside greeting guests with Allura and Shiro would be landing any tic. At the mention of their former leader’s impending arrival, Keith drug his bespeckled friend along the pristine path toward the glittering insides of the revamped castle of lions. The quickened pace didn't go unnoticed. It was hard to get anything by Pidge. Who gave their pal a sad and knowing smile. 

"Hey, it won’t kill you two to be in the same room. It's been years." It was an attempt to lay Keith’s uneasiness at rest, one that the black paladin acknowledged but couldn’t quite take to heart. For Keith, seeing Shiro again was to be reintroduced to the being you believed to be your second half, after five years of separation. After being discarded for another whom he hardly knew. Knowing all of this, Pidge jammed an elbow gently into the gloomy male at their side. Tough love was their specialty, Pidge was blunt with most matters, when it came to affection there was hardly much of a difference. "If it helps, Shiro's coming alone, he didn't file a plus one."

"He what? Why would he be coming alone?" It took control not to gape at the new information, a weight lifted from his lungs. Any time the former head of Voltron was seen away from home base, there was always Curtis right there at his side caught in the frames of intergalactic gossip columns and universal news outlets. At least he wouldn't be subjected to the sight of the both of them in the same room for the next few weeks. It was a bitter thought, one he would’ve rather not had if he could pick and choose the things that went through his brain. Though that didn’t make it any less sincere of a thought. 

Years had changed their appearances some but not much. Keith still had a few inches on Pidge in terms of height. The green paladin chopped their hair into a messy hybrid of a pixie cut crossed with a bob. The taller of the two had allowed his hair to grow out, not paying his looks much mind. Not that he ever really had before. His face was still lean planes of cheek bones and a set jaw, eyes a mess of violet blue pigments dashed together.

“Lance has a bunch of theories we’ve chatted about in passing, he’s tangled up in running this so we haven’t had enough time to really talk about anything too deep. I know it's killing him that he can’t sit down and run his mouth with all of us in one room.” The pair wore a matching grin both thinking back on similar memories.

What sort of energy each teammate of theirs had when occupying a room. Lance had always been so open and enthusiastic about most things. Only the paladins and members of his family knew that the past jovial romance and cracking jokes, Lance had a tender side for all those he considered close. In the beginning it was hard for Keith and the blue paladin to see eye to eye, but near the end of their missions they’d had a bond that couldn’t be denied. 

Butterflies stirred in his stomach. These were his dearest friends and family. Not that the blades didn’t have a special place in his heart.The paladins were just held slightly closer to the center of that space meant for those he cared about deeply. This was largely due to the fact that The Blades of Marmora weren’t the type to concern themselves with emotions and ties between their peers.

Beyond the thrust open doors of the palace, the two arms of voltron were whisked away to their rooms. It was necessary to uphold an image. This meant uniforms were meant to be discarded after their grand entrance. Cameras caught the sight of each of them logging their first appearances past the threshold. 

Keith in his BOM suit. Pidge dressed in garb that was patchwork greens, shades of beige, orange and grey. The entire look had the illusion that each piece was its own separate wrap of sorts. It was vaguely reminiscent of space pirate legends plentiful with pockets and vibrant dye. Various devices were tucked into these pockets, arming the innovative inventor with some of the universe's richest knowledge. Lance was already dressed in some variant of formal attire as he greeted guests all morning and afternoon. Though he would certainly swap the garment for something flashier later into the night. There was also Hunk, dressed similarly to Pidge. Though his outfit had far fewer pockets, it looked less like a swath of scarves neatly folded into clothes. Green, gray and orange patches made up a polished suit that bunched up at the sleeves and stopped at his calves where boots met the ends.

Then of course there was Shiro. It was lucky for Keith to have missed the sight of him in that Garrison uniform. Where the cadet’s uniforms were yellow, his was Black. The first black paladin of their bunch. That was until of course, Keith shouldered the role. The head of the team that he never wanted to be. It was fitting of course, that he was given his own matching uniform though red replaced the vanta black panel. He was a vision. Age hadn’t taken a large toll on him, if anything had it was stress. But even then he was the million dollar man Keith once prayed to. The only icon the rebellious spitfire believed in. 

The hall that led to the five paladin’s quarters was a long wide corridor, decorated with art that had been commemorated to the victory of the Alliance. There were paintings depicting missions gone awry. Statues contorted this way and that made from metals that were beyond the mind’s eye in terms of imagination. The floor was a silvery blue that always looked to be freshly polished. 

Surrounding the bottoms of each tower’s beginnings were the steps of spiral staircases laden with mechanical blossoms that bloomed in color at the presence of the paladins. Of course, there was no way one would walk all the way up to the top though, considering their impressive heights. It was a marvel of advanced technology really. When stepping onto the first step, the column of sleek metal mimicking stone broke open a doorway. Then the person was then tucked away into the shaft that functioned as an elevator using a platformed hovering stair step to shoot them up toward the exclusive chambers.

Keith took to the red tower, finding himself in a room that surely half the size of a football field at the very least. Somehow through the work of many brilliant minds, the space was much larger than one would expect looking at the five color coded dwellings. 

A bed sat lonely pressed to a wall between windows with curtains in the richest shade of crimson blacking out the sunset skies. The floors were polished black tile, the walls sleek black with red trim. Keith swallowed the emptiness in the room, his footsteps echoing loud in his ears. Past the draped windows were the other towers. He wondered if Shiro was in the center, high, high above it all. Keith nearly wished he'd had claimed the black paladin’s room, having been Black's last pilot. It was the closest he could get to the reaches of what he considered home. The room was nestled in the constellations, soaked in the dark glimmering planar view of inky space. The shade bled over the magnificent architecture. 

Shaking the thought, he walked toward one end of the room, meeting two doors, a closet and washroom. Both far too large for the use of one person. After living out of the cruiser cockpit a good eighty to ninety percent of the past five years, the change was a bit startling.

For Shiro, the new living space was not as disorienting. In fact, the space soaked room was homier than his actual house back on earth. Granted there were multiple factors that had affected his views of where he had lived following the war. 

Each of the paladin’s quarters were almost identical, the differences came down to color pallet , views from the windows and placement of furniture. Where Keith’s floors were shining black tiles, Shiro’s were smooth white marble, crossed with swirls of black that mirrored the patterns of starry skies. Curtains of thick purple velvet veiled massive glass panels featuring his special place hung in the planes of space. The little bit of etched white walls that peeked between the panes gave off an eye catching contrast when placed against the gradated shades of purple black and blues outside. His heart tugged at the idea of this room left unlived in for so long. Being cradled in these walls muffled the nagging anxiety nipping at his heels. 

Keith would’ve wept at this space. The thought was intrusive, spurred on by the fact that the former red paladin was on the same planet as him. That alone was enough to inspire fresh waves of nerves in the steeled soldier. Keith had done a great job at sticking around inside Shiro’s head when he was light years away on the brink of the galaxy's deadliest edges. Now they would be meeting face to face after five long years, sharing a palace for a matter of weeks or months at most. 

He had to remind himself to breathe. Tonight’s ball was no doubt going to be brutal and simultaneously euphoric. Having the team together again was akin to being reunited with family thicker than blood. There was nothing that could break the bond they had created when the war began. Each of them had been granted access to one another’s most protected thoughts. Once upon a time that was their strongest asset. Now, that kind of closeness was sure to be a minefield. Luckily for the lot of them, the lions had been out of commission during their five way split. 

The team would be spared the emotional complexities of what it meant to share the same headspace. It was no secret that the red and black paladin had their share of unsettled turmoil. Love, as it turns out was a more dangerous and unpredictable battlefield than war.


End file.
